1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to Ethernet systems and, more particularly, to a system and method for reducing power consumption during periods of low link utilization.
2. Introduction
Energy costs continue to escalate in a trend that has accelerated in recent years. Such being the case, various industries have become increasingly sensitive to the impact of those rising costs. One area that has drawn increasing scrutiny is the IT infrastructure. Many companies are now looking at their IT systems' power usage to determine whether the energy costs can be reduced. For this reason, an industry focus on energy efficient networks has arisen to address the rising costs of IT equipment usage as a whole (i.e., PCs, displays, printers, servers, network equipment, etc.).
One area that has shown the potential for cost and energy savings is efficient link utilization. Most network links are typically in an idle state between sporadic bursts of data. The overall link utilization is therefore relatively low. Reducing link rates when the high data capacity is not needed can therefore save energy. In other words, a link can use a high data rate when data transmission needs are high, and use a low data rate when data transmission needs are low. While this concept of efficient link utilization is well known, what is needed is an efficient mechanism for adapting the link rate to provide reduced power consumption during a period of low link utilization.